Assessment of policy instruments for pesticide use reduction in Europe: Learning from a systematic literature review

Intensive and worldwide usage of conventional pesticides on arable land has led to varying problems for the environment and human health. Consequently, many governments and several private actors actively stimulate reduction of pesticide use. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of public and private policy instruments in terms of reducing pesticide use by farmers via a systematic literature review of 78 articles published between 1967 and 2017. The geographical focus area was Europe. The review determined that no specific instrument is guaranteed to reduce pesticide use. Instead, characteristics comprising an instrument were confirmed to be beneficial to reducing pesticide use. In particular, mixes of instruments, with varying degrees of authoritative force, applied at multiple scales with stakeholder collaboration were identified as beneficial to reducing farmer pesticide use. It is implied within the literature that instruments comprised of such characteristics aid reducing pesticide use due to facilitating consideration of heterogeneous farm and farmer characteristics.